Lymphocyte stimulation: selective destruction of cells during blastogenic response to transplantation antigens.

The blastogenic response of human lymphoid cells toward any individual's transplantation antigens can be deleted by the addition of tritiated thymidine of high specific activity during the incubation of the lymphoid cells in mixed leukocyte culture. After the immunocompetent clones which responded to histocompatibility antigens had been destroyed, the remaining population still retained its capacity to respond to unrelated antigens, including other transplantation antigens.